The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(31)

There was a heartfelt sigh, bringing her attention back to the girl sitting on top of the small desk in front of her, idly swinging her legs back and forth as she slowly shook her head. “Sadly, no.”

“I see,” Joey said, nodding as she considered the rest of the class, noting the way they all sat there, nodding in agreement.

“It’s okay because we don’t actually need them,” a boy said from the back row.

“You don’t?” Joey asked, carrying her bag over to the large desk that she was going to be calling home for the next three months and placed it on the floor.

“We finished weeks ago,” Jen, she believed her name was based on what she’d overheard during the morning meeting, said nodding solemnly along with the rest of the class.

“You finished U.S. History weeks ago?” Joey asked as she reluctantly hopped up onto her desk.

“Unfortunately,” Jen said, following that up with a shrug. “We’re the accelerated class.”

“Oh,” Joey said, frowning down at the syllabus that John handed her before the morning meeting. “They didn’t tell me that you were the accelerated class.”

There was a sad, drawn-out sigh followed with, “They always forget to tell the substitute teachers.”

“I was planning on going over the American Revolution, but since you already covered it…” Joey said with a helpless shrug.

“We already did,” another boy said, nodding.

“I guess we could watch a movie?” Joey suggested with a sigh and a lazy gesture toward the flat screen television mounted on the wall.

“You know,” Jen said as the rest of the class nodded in agreement, “that would probably be for the best.”

“Since we’re supposed to study United States history, why don’t we watch ‘The Patriot?’” she suggested as she slid off her desk and picked up her bag.

“I suppose we could do that,” Jen said as she sat down at her desk while the rest of the students nodded eagerly.

“Okay,” Joey said as she put her bag on the desk and searched for her copy of The Patriot. “I was really hoping that we wouldn’t have to do this.”

“We could do what we normally do and just hang out?” someone suggested even as they started pulling out their phones.

“True,” Joey murmured as she pulled the movie out before reluctantly grabbing a soda and the bag of junk food that she’d picked up this morning on the off-chance that it came to this.

“Should I get the lights?” a boy asked, already getting up to shut the lights off.

Turning around, Joey couldn’t help but frown. “But then how would you be able to see what you’re writing?”

“Wait, writing?” he asked, shooting a nervous glance back at Jen who simply shrugged it off.

“I usually wait until the end of the semester to do this with my students, but since you’ve already finished I guess we’ll do it today,” Joey said with a shrug as she walked over to the DVD player resting on a shelf near the television.

“Do what?”

“Normally, I have my grad students look for thirty mistakes and my undergrads look for twenty, but since you’re the accelerated class we should probably stick with thirty,” Joey said with a heartfelt sigh as she took the DVD out of its case and popped it into the DVD player.

“Thirty what?” the leader of the pack asked, shifting nervously in her seat as she glanced back at the rest of the class for help.

“Historical inaccuracies in this movie. Since you’re the accelerated class you should have no problem finding them,” Joey said with a smile and a satisfied sigh as she turned around and faced the horrified group of students behind her.

Jen opened his mouth, but Joey cut her off, “Did I mention that this was going to be counted as a test?” she asked brightly, noting that more than half the students looked like they were about to be sick as she pressed Play.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

“Wait! You can’t do this!”

“I really can though,” Joey said, nodding solemnly as she walked back over to her desk, sat down, leaned back, propped her feet up on the desk and grabbed the bag of chips with a satisfied sigh as every last student sat there, staring back at her in horror.

With a chip, she gestured toward the movie, “You already missed one,” Joey pointed out as she popped the chip in her mouth.

“But…” Jen said, looking completely lost as she sat there while the rest of the class tore their bags apart, desperately looking for something to write with.

“Missed another one,” Joey said, taking another sip of her soda even as she couldn’t help but notice that a mini-fridge would go very nicely in the corner by the closet.

“Oh, god,” a girl sitting in the back whimpered.

Frowning, Joey looked back at the movie and asked, “You got the last one, right?”

“No,” came the hesitant reply.

Shaking her head, she returned her attention to her chips with a sigh, “That’s a shame.”

“Dr. Lawson?” Reed said from the doorway, drawing every hopeful gaze in the room and—

She found herself looking at Reed, taking in the way his green eyes lit up when he smiled down at Shawn and realized that he had kind eyes. He’d always been handsome, but those eyes…